ButterCMS vs Substack
Compare ButterCMS and Substack for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!
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What Users Say
See what users who have used ButterCMS and Substack have to say about their overall experience with the product.
ButterCMS's Key Strengths
Read what users love about ButterCMS.
Substack's Key Strengths
Read what users love about Substack.
ButterCMS's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with ButterCMS.
Substack's Key Issues
Read what issues users have with Substack.
What Marketers & Content Creators Say
Hear from the users who uses ButterCMS and Substack daily about their experience with the editors.
ButterCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about ButterCMS's editor.
Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights
What marketers love about Substack's editor.
ButterCMS's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about ButterCMS's editor.
Substack's Editorial Experience Issues
What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.
Mobile Editing
Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.
ButterCMS supports a mobile-first experience optimizing content creation on mobile devices.
"A Mobile Content Management System (CMS) is a centralized data store that allows managing content for multiple platforms."Source
"Butter makes CMS jobs faster with our intuitive content modeling and easy to integrate content API."Source
"The Customizable WYSIWYG editor provides you with a content editing experience where the content resembles the appearance that will be displayed on your live site."Source
"This centralized approach simplifies integration for developers, as they always deal with the same APIs and content models, regardless of the channel."Source
Substack has launched a mobile editor for creating posts directly on iOS and Android devices, offering essential functionalities.
Automatic Content Linking
Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.
ButterCMS does not support automatic related blog linking for SEO; internal linking must be done manually.
"ButterCMS does not currently offer automated features for related content linking."Source
"Blog posts are predefined pages with a pre-defined field that allows you to get a blog quickly connected with your site via built-in optimized SEO."Source
"ButterCMS lacks an automatic process to link related blog posts; such linking must be handled manually."Source
Substack does not support automatic related blog linking features; manual linking is required.
"If you'd like to share certain parts of a post or allow readers to jump to a specific section of a long post, try adding anchor links."Source
"Recommendations are a Substack super ... However, I couldn't find evidence of automatic related content linking."Source
"I was wondering if it is a good idea to create a substack and post my content on there as well and even link the substack post back to my main blog."Source
Automatic CTA Linking
Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.
ButterCMS does not support automatic CTA linking; marketers must manually assign CTAs in their content.
"ButterCMS lacks features for automatic linking of call-to-action blocks; users must manage placements manually."Source
"The platform does not mention support for automatically linking call-to-action elements."Source
"Marketers are responsible for manually selecting and placing CTAs in the ButterCMS blog engine."Source
Substack lacks built-in automatic CTA linking; users rely on external tools for automation features.
"Substack provides no automation tools at all; the author notes this is a primary reason users leave for competitors."Source
"Substack lacks several critical features needed for effective email marketing, including automated email sequences."Source
"Users discuss the absence of integrated automation features in Substack, noting their reliance on external tools."Source
Comments
Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.
ButterCMS does not natively support commenting; users must integrate third-party tools like Disqus.
Substack supports commenting on posts from both subscribers and non-subscribers, with moderation options available.
"Navigate to your publication's Settings and click on Community. Slide the toggle to enable comments."Source
"You can now enable comments on your posts for anyone on your mailing list, even if they’re not a paid subscriber."Source
"Writers can choose whether to allow comments from everyone or only paid subscribers."Source
Multi-tenancy
Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.
ButterCMS supports multi-tenancy, enabling users to manage multiple client accounts from a single dashboard.
Substack does not support multi-tenancy, focusing primarily on individual writers and content monetization.
What Developers Say
Hear from developers who've integrated and built on ButterCMS and Substack about their experiences.
ButterCMS's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with ButterCMS.
Substack's DX Highlights
What developers love about building with Substack.
ButterCMS's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with ButterCMS.
Substack's DX Issues
What developers dislike about building with Substack.
Content Modelling
Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.
ButterCMS supports content modeling with features like custom fields, page types, and collections.
"Easily manage all of your content types from one centralized dashboard. Butter makes CMS jobs faster with our intuitive content modeling."Source
"ButterCMS is an easy to use tool for content management, allowing for seamless content modeling."Source
"Butter allows you to create flexible page layouts and easily reorder them, supporting advanced content modeling."Source
Substack does not offer built-in content modelling features or custom content types.
"Substack offers limited customization, focusing more on content rather than design."Source
"Directus allows you to create custom schemas, manage data, define roles & permissions for your organization."Source
"Substack doesn’t allow customization for its newsletter formats, thus limiting content modelling."Source
Custom React Components
Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.
ButterCMS allows marketers to integrate custom React components into their content editor.
Substack does not support custom React components directly in the content editor.
"Over the years, I’ve written and reviewed hundreds of React components for a $1.7B GenAI startup."Source
"I wanted to display my Substack posts on my website instead of a subscribe link, so I created my own Substack feed component!"Source
"A customizable React component renders the login page based on the user's UI settings."Source
"The new components are both fully customizable AND robust."Source
"I have used substackapi to achieve this Custom Embed Substack Signup Form."Source
Full Text Search
Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.
ButterCMS supports full-text search but currently only via API without direct audio input capabilities.
"ButterCMS allows searching through created blogs and pages using keywords."Source
"It is important to note that ButterCMS does not currently support the use of audio input when searching for data."Source
"Full Text Search. Search for specific words or phrases within a document or across multiple types."Source
Substack's search functionality is weak, lacking full text search across all content and authors.
Starter Kits
Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.
ButterCMS provides various starter kits for Angular, Django, Next.js, etc.
(Expand section to see a list of ButterCMS templates and starter kits.)
Substack offers various starter kits and templates for creators.
(Expand section to see a list of Substack templates and starter kits.)
Pricing & Plans
Compare the prices of ButterCMS and Substack.